


I want you around

by almightydork (earthsmightiestdorks)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Punk, F/F, Nonbinary Character, Slice of Life, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22725145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earthsmightiestdorks/pseuds/almightydork
Summary: Kiyoko's life turns on its head when a mysterious blondie in a black leather jacket brings her flowers on her birthday.
Relationships: Nishinoya Yuu & Shimizu Kiyoko & Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Nishinoya Yuu/Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Shimizu Kiyoko & Sugawara Koushi, Shimizu Kiyoko/Tanaka Saeko
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. January 6th

**Author's Note:**

  * For [awwclint](https://archiveofourown.org/users/awwclint/gifts).



The sound of the door opening startles Kiyoko out of her focused placing of the folded tee-shirts into their correct shelves. 

The automatic greeting resonates around the shop, and when it reaches her ears it’s so faint her brain wouldn’t have picked up the word ‘irasshaimase’ if she wasn’t so used to it.

She glances over her shoulder to find the new possible customer has blond hair, at least on the top of their head. They’re not much taller than the items’ racks and Kiyoko can’t see their face. 

She turns back to her task, absentmindedly wondering why she turned to watch the door in the first place. She’s stretching her arms to place a tee on a high shelf when someone clears their throat next to her. 

“Are you Shimizu?” the stranger asks, and Kiyoko nods, assessing them. 

She’s shorter than Kiyoko, by at least 10 centimeters, and she has short, blond hair in a bob cut framing her face. Kiyoko’s eyes travel down and she spots the stranger’s deep cleavage. 

Her eyes shoot up back to the stranger’s face before she notices Kiyoko was staring. 

“He’s right…” the blond mumbles, barely audible. 

Kiyoko stops herself from making a confused face at the person in front of her and smiles her best, most charming smile. “Are you looking for something in particular?” 

“Yeah, you,” the person answers, taking something from her backpack.

It’s flowers.

Why is a stranger giving Kiyoko a small flower bouquet? At least, Kiyoko thinks she’s a stranger. She’s sure she would have remembered the face, the hair, the studded black leather jacket, the padlock-on-a-chain necklace, the red tank top with deep cleavage, the ripped jeans showing the skin just above the knees, the-

Kiyoko reaches for the flowers, opening her mouth to either thank the stranger or ask her  _ why _ , when she interrupts her.

“Ryuu wanted me to give those to you, for your birthday. He couldn’t make it out of his shift so he asked me to do this favor for him.” Kiyoko’s brain registers first the kind gesture before her brain quickly backtracks at the stranger’s use of a rough, masculine way to refer to herself.

“Ah,” Kiyoko speaks, her confusion shifting from the flowers to the person. “How do you know Tanaka?” 

The stranger flashes a beautiful, wide smile. “Ryuu’s my younger brother.” 

Kiyoko looks at the face of Tanaka’s sister, taking in her features. Now that she knows, Kiyoko can definitely see the resemblance. 

She also accidentally pictures Tanaka with long blond hair and she has to reel in her laugh. She coughs instead. 

“Well, please let Tanaka know I really liked the flowers,” she says while gently running her thumb along the petals of one of the roses. “Oh, and thank you for going out of your way to bring these to me.” 

The stranger- Tanaka's sister- god, Kiyoko really should ask her name - shakes her hand between them in a dismissive gesture. “I’m not really out of my way, I work down the street, but Ryuu nearly got on his knees to beg me to do th- oh, shit, I don't know why I told you that,” Tanaka’s sister cuts herself off, but she doesn’t look at all guilty. 

Kiyoko blushes gently at the image of Tanaka, of all people, begging, but she nods to his sister in acknowledgment. 

“Well, anyway, you’re welcome,” the blond Tanaka says, and Kiyoko nods again. “And also, happy birthday, I guess.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem, hon’,” Tanaka’s sister says before walking away towards the store exit, waving at Kiyoko the whole time. “See you around.”

Kiyoko watches Tanaka’s sister with some low curiosity, clutching the flowers against her chest. When the blonde hops on her motorcycle and disappears down the street, Kiyoko brings her flowers near her nose, letting the sweet scent fill her senses. 

She puts the bouquet away in a vase in the back of the store for the rest of her shift, but with the way she can’t stop thinking about the whole situation it’s like the flowers never left her side in the first place. She finds herself going into the storage in the back at every opportunity she’s granted - Sugawara mocks her after the fourth or fifth time, asking her if she’s hiding drugs or a dead body under the pile of old, deflated balls. 

The flowers are beautiful, but so was the deliverer, and she finds herself feeling guilty for thinking of Tanaka’s sister when he was the one who gave her the gift in the first place. 

When she leaves the room after the seventh time, manager Ukai looks at her very suspiciously, and Kiyoko decides to stop going into the back unless specifically asked to. 

Later that night when she makes a place for the bouquet on her kitchen counter, she pictures both Tanaka siblings fighting over which flowers to get and then wearing their matching Tanaka grins when they settle for a few options. 

She smiles at the mental image, thinking it very believable despite knowing nothing about Tanaka’s sister, not even her name.

She picks up her phone and considers asking her friend about his sister, and she starts typing out the message before thinking better about it. 

‘ _ Hey, Tanaka, the flowers are lovely, thank you! _ _   
_ _ You free on friday? There’s a new place near here with birthday discount _ ’

She bites her lip as she hits send, wondering whether she should mention his older sister or not. 

Tanaka’s answer comes before she can ponder too much.

‘ _ kiyoko-saaaaaaaan, happy birthday!! i was so worried saeko would miss u or smth _ ’

_ Saeko _ . Kiyoko lets the name bounce around her brain, mouthing it once or twice. It sounds good. 

Her phone buzzes again and she blushes despite Tanaka not actually being there to see her. 

‘ _ heck yea i’m free friday _ __   
_ yuu is too i think _ _   
_ __ take us anywhere you want, kiyoko-san ’

Kiyoko sends him the address and some other details and when it’s all set she bids him - and Nishinoya - goodnight before getting ready for bed. 

_ Tanaka Saeko _ , her brain keeps thinking, and before she drifts off into sleep she tries to convince herself to ask Tanaka to bring Saeko with him to her birthday celebration. 


	2. January 22nd

Kiyoko finds herself looking at the door for the nth time that day and she curses under her breath as she goes back to work. 

Ever since Saeko walked into the sports store through that door, Kiyoko can’t stop thinking about her. It keeps her distracted through some of her classes, as she wonders absentmindedly whether she should ask Tanaka to have the tutoring sessions at his place instead, just in the off chance his sister will be around. 

It keeps her distracted at work, because she’s started pausing whatever she’s doing to look up at the entrance whenever her ears pick up the automated greeting. 

The door opens for a client to leave and she looks up from the shirts she’s folding yet again, and she calls herself a trained dog in her thoughts. 

It was bad enough two weeks ago, when she tripped over some misplaced swimming apparatus and Sugawara laughed at her, and it’s bad enough now as she drops a volleyball on the top of her head as she looks away from the shelf she’s placing them and Sugawara laughs at her. 

“At least it wasn’t a bowling ball,” he teases her, and she frowns at him. Somehow he’s always around when her Saeko-induced distractions make a fool of her. 

Either he has a sixth sense for teasing his friends or Kiyoko is literally distracted about Saeko _all the time_. 

Her boss hands her a company tablet and sends her to the back when he catches her looking at the door constantly. 

“You are probably the only university student who gets grounded, Shimizu,” Sugawara jokes as he opens the storage room. 

Kiyoko blushes, but she joins him. “Mr. Ukai is right though, I do need to stop looking at the entrance every time someone goes in or out. Like, at least out,” she comments as she pokes an unidentifiable mound of sports goods covered by a black tarp. “If only our greeting robot could tell them apart…”

Sugawara laughs a small, soundless laugh. “‘Robot’ is very generous for a movement sensor with a sound box,” he corrects, and she shrugs, smiling back at him. “Anyway, enjoy inventorying!” he goes back to the main room and leaves Kiyoko alone with her thoughts. 

She sighs and gets to work, trying to figure out which mystery pile to start with.

She’s halfway done the inventory check when someone knocks on the frame of the door and a familiar voice calls for her. 

“Kiyoko-senpai? Sugawara-san told me you were back here.”

“Tanaka!” she answers him, looking up from her spreadsheet. He smiles like he always does around her and she relaxes. “What are you doing here? No shift today?” Kiyoko asks, setting the tablet aside and partially sitting on one of the bigger boxes. 

Tanaka shakes his head no. “I had a double shift on Monday by mistake-”

“Again?” Kiyoko asks, thinking about her birthday and flowers and Saeko. She fights back a blush.

“Right? It’s gotta be a prank from one of the managers, honestly,” Tanaka guesses, scratching the back of his head. “I think he’s a senior at our university. Do you know a guy named Tendou?” 

Kiyoko shakes her head no. 

“Oh well,” Tanaka shrugs. “Anyway, I have something for you,” he prompts before sliding his backpack off his shoulder and getting a box from inside. “Saeko wanted me to give this to you.”

It’s a box of chocolates. Tanaka Saeko just gave her a box of chocolates. A _box of chocolates_. Kiyoko stares at the gift dumbfounded. 

Tanaka’s laughter gets Kiyoko’s brain back online. “Don’t look so surprised. Big sis’ is a Tanaka after all, so of course Saeko has good taste. And like, thinks you’re really cute,” Tanaka says as Kiyoko pulls the box towards her chest, almost hugging it. “Though Yuu agrees with me that ‘really cute’ is a massive understatement,” he adds in an amused tone, and Kiyoko nods, still a bit stunned. 

“Thank you,” Kiyoko answers, and Tanaka quiets down a little, a faint blush darkening his cheeks. 

“It’s no big deal, really. I owed Sis from getting you the flowers before they wilted, and also I like catching up with you. So, it’s a win-win situation,” he explains, before scratching the back of his head, thinking. “Or, win-win- _win_ , I guess,” he muses.

“Still, thank you,” Kiyoko reiterates, smiling at her friend’s logic. “And give my thanks to Saeko as well, for the gift,” she adds, gesturing to the box on her arm. 

“Will do! And, uh, Sis also asked me to invite you to our movie night this Friday. I think there’s a note inside the box, but just in case there isn’t…”

Kiyoko’s smile broadens, and Tanaka smiles as well. “Yes, I’d love to go.”

“Nice!” Tanaka cheers, raising his fist in victory. “Well, I do gotta go return a couple of books now, but talk to you tomorrow after muscle anatomy class? I can’t believe I have to remember so many foreign names, they all sound the same to me,” he whines, his shoulders dropping in defeat. 

Kiyoko giggles. “Don’t worry, I’ll save you.”

“My hero,” Tanaka sing-songs as he bats his eyelashes, and Kiyoko laughs at the sight. Tanaka joins her, and for a few minutes they play pretend at prince and knight. Eventually he thanks her in a less joking manner before picking his backpack back up and waving goodbye. 

Kiyoko doesn’t know how long she stays there, just staring at the gift before finally working up the will to open it. Just like Tanaka said, there is a note inside, and Saeko’s handwriting is all quick lines and thin shapes. Kiyoko smiles at it. 

She works the rest of her shift with the note on her back pocket, and Friday in her head. 

When she gets home starts picking her outfit already, and when Tanaka messages her letting her know Saeko is excited about her going over on Friday, it only _feels_ like her chest jumps out of her chest, cartoon-like.


End file.
